This invention relates to a device for supporting a food serving tray in a location alongside a restaurant table. The invention is thought to be an improvement on a device shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,185,114 issued to G. J. Consin.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,185,114 shows a rack device designed to form a horizontal platform for a serving tray in a restaurant. The rack device includes a U-shaped frame formed out of an aluminum tube. Tracks are attached to the underside of a restaurant table to normally support the frame in a retracted position underneath the table. The frame can be pulled out to a position extending alongside the table, after which a serving tray carrying dinners can be deposited on the frame. The waiter is then able to serve the meal, i.e. transfer the various plates, cups, glasses, etc. from the tray to the table.
The device shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,185,114 includes two separate brackets for slidably supporting the U-shaped frame. Unless those brackets are very accurately aligned and spaced the U-shaped frame will tend to bind, i.e. not move smoothly between its retracted position and its extended position. This can be troublesome because the waiter will be able to use only one hand when he/she is moving the frame; one hand will be carrying the tray of food so that the waiter has to move the U-shaped frame in or out on the guide brackets with only one hand.
The problem of properly aligning and spacing the guide brackets is complicated by the fact that the frame has a relatively long stroke distance between its extended and retracted position, e.g. at least about twenty inches. The guide brackets can appear to be properly spaced and aligned when the frame is at or near its retracted position; however when it is attempted to move the frame to its other position the frame may bind in the guide brackets or dislocate one of the brackets from a correct position.
The device shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,185,114 appears to be an all-metal construction. Both the guide brackets and the U-frame are formed of metal. When bare metal components slide on one another they tend to produce a grinding sound that can be quite disturbing or annoying. Use of the device disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,185,114 in a restaurant might in many cases be annoying to restaurant patrons.
The present invention relates to a tray-supporting device that is in many respects similar to the device shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,185,114. However, instead of two separate guide brackets I provide a guide structure comprised of a single channel having downwardly extending flanges, and two horizontal plastic guide tubes extending horizontally between the channel flanges. Parallel tubular sections of a U-shaped rack (frame) are slidably guided in the plastic tubes.
A principal advantage of my proposed tray-support device is that the entire device can be manufactured and aligned in a factory (prior to attachment of the device on the underside of a restaurant table). The channel includes a flat web wall having a number of holes therethrough. Mounting the device to the underside of a table merely involves screwing screws through the holes into the table, without any need for aligning or spacing one guide bracket relative to another guide bracket. The channel itself serves as the aligning device for the plastic guide tubes.
The contemplated tray support device is slidably guided (supported) in two plastic tubes. There is a metal-to-plastic (or plastic-to-plastic) slidable contact that can be essentially noiseless. In a restaurant atmosphere this would be of considerable importance.